MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

7/27 Rumors

There are at least a half dozen Major League scouts on hand at Minute Maid Park to watch Ted Lilly and the Astros’ Brett Myers. Lilly has drawn interest despite his 3-8 record because that mark is a reflection of the lack of run support. The lefty leads the Major Leagues in least amount of runs (2.43 per start). Through five innings Tuesday, he’s rarely topped 90 mph on the stadium radar gun but his curve has been sharp.

There are rumors that teams also are interested in Derrek Lee, who will be a free agent at season’s end like Lilly. However, the interest is limited. Lee is batting .352 in his last 16 games since July 6 with seven doubles, one homer and eight RBIs but he’s hitting .251 overall.

According to reports, the Cubs are offering Kosuke Fukudome and Carlos Zambrano to teams, but both have significant guaranteed money on their contracts. Fukudome is batting .253 and has been bumped by rookie Tyler Colvin. It’s uncertain how Big Z will do in his comeback from the restricted list.

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4 Comments

After tonight’s bullpen meltdown by Cashner, Ted Lilly should be happy about a trade. The Cubs just can’t get on a roll. The losses just keep piling up. Hopefully we can get a top triple or double A pitching prospect out of a deal… Good luck unloading Big Z or Fukudome!

How many nails can you put in the coffin of a completely inept GM, without making the casket out of 100% metal?

We varyingly lead the majors or are second in quality starts yet continue to throw games away…

How do teams such as Atlanta, Toronto, Sand Diego and the Dodgers have competent reasonably paid relievers on a shoestring yet Hendry spends $140m+++ to fill ours with rookies and the incompetent Grabow and laughable Howry?

Had the Grabow and Nady salaries been sensibly spent we would have been 4-5games better off and contending. Instead we can merely treat Hendry with the contempt (and that is now getting boring, so please Ricketts get rid) that he deserves.

Despite his great figures, Marmol is not our closer of the future until his errant command can be coached out. But think about a bullpen with Marmol / Marshall as the set-up guys and Heath Bell as closer. Then we may just be planning for September.

The fact that Hendry is still the GM is now more puzzling than even his ludicrous signings of Soriano, Fukodome, Nady, Howry and all the money wasted on those players. I don’t care if the previous owners ordered Hendry to go get a “marquis” player, a GOOD GM would have seen the handwriting on the wall and never have buckled under ANY pressure to sign a defensive liability, non-hustling, free swinging player with diminishing and aging skills (ha) like you got with Soriano…FOR EIGHT YEARS? That deal ALONE gets him fired. When people in high places (Rickets, Hendry, Kenney) are now jockeying for position for who can be the most confounding at running this team what kind of confidence do they expect us fans to have? This off season the Ricketts will hopefully make some hard decisions that will once and for all give us fans some optimism. I might dance if the Ricketts brought in a new GM NOW, that new GM sent Pinella packing and then brought in next year’s manager NOW to complete the season instead of the prevailing lame duck regime. Now THAT would be something! Right???

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